East Island & La Perouse Pinnacle

We finally got to some of the outer islands today. The NOAA vessel is in the area again so they could act as our backup in case of problems. We traveled 7 or 8 miles to East Island and had our lunch and then did some basic survey work. Nothing as detailed as the work we do here at Tern but did nest counts of 10 species. There are hundreds of turtles in the water and hauled out on the beaches. Much of the island looks to be covered by small bomb craters that are 5-6 feet across and 2-3 feet deep. All of theses holes are nests that are dug at night by female turtles. She then lays her eggs and leaves and does not return. When the eggs hatch, the young turtles are on their own. There were also good numbers of Hawaiian Monk Seals including a new pup. From East Island we went 5 or 6 miles west to La Perouse Pinnacle. This is a rock that is much too steep to land on, but we did some basic census work from the boat. From there we came back to Tern Island. Some of this boat travel was among the coral heads with breakers all around and some was deep water.We were gone about 4 hours.